‘Betty’ Focuses on Giving and Selfishness

“It’s not a play about fatness--that is, fatness as an issue unto itself,” said Dana Coen of his “Bunches of Betty,” just opened at Van Nuys’ West End Playhouse.

“Betty is an obese, colorful woman who lives alone and takes in stray animals off the street,” the playwright said. “Then two people come along and make her confront some issues in her life: giving versus selfishness; self-acceptance, generosity to self and others. I think of this as my Reagan-era play, although it has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with the kind of people we’re raising now--selfish and self-centered.”

Ironically, Coen admits that his own reasons for writing “Betty” were somewhat selfish.

“The only way I could explore questions about my place in the world is by putting them in a body of someone totally unlike me, a thin man,” he said. Coen feels no presumption in the characterization: “Anybody who calls themselves a writer is an observer; that’s what I presume to do. I think I know enough about human beings, the similarities between us, that I can write about what goes on inside the head of a fat woman.”

Coen’s last play, “Sympathy”--set at a Jewish funeral--played at the Burbank Theatre Guild last year. Now under contract at Disney, conceiving TV and film projects, he has stylized Betty’s plight with imaginary animals, rear-screen projection and an original score by Steve Bittle. “I think there’s something of this character in anyone who considers themselves sensitive or introspective,” he noted. “Betty’s last name is Rich, which I think says it all. She’s deeply dimensional, larger than life. The title refers as much to her interior life as to her size.”

Also opening this month:

Tonight: “Intimacies,” actor Michael Kearns’ one-man collection of AIDS stories opens at Theatre/Theater in Hollywood, reprising his successful run last month at Highways.

Also tonight: Storyteller Barry Yourgrau is back with more oddball fare in “Barry Yourgrau X 4,” playing at Cafe Largo in West Hollywood.

Aug. 13: Alexander Gelman’s “A Man with Connections,” set in contemporary Soviet Union and translated by Stephen Mulrine, bows at the Matrix Theatre in West Hollywood, where it joins the already-opened “Wenceslas Square” in repertory. Kristoffer Tabori directs Charles Hallahan and Carolyn Seymour.

Aug. 17: Bruce Graham ponders what a group of people might do if they thought the world was ending in “ . . . Rainbow Bar & Grille,” opening at the Victory Theatre in Burbank. Bill Cakmis directs.

Aug. 18: Venice’s Pacific Theatre Ensemble presents Shakespeare’s comedy, “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” performed out-of-doors on the Santa Monica Pier. D. Paul Yeuell directs; admission is free.

Aug. 18: Frank Fowler takes the spotlight in his one-man play, “Inside Out” (which bowed last summer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland), opening at the Skylight Theatre in Hollywood.

Aug. 18: Peter Parnell’s romantic comedy, “Sorrows of Stephen,” opens at Venice’s Rose Theatre. Bob McAndrew directs Jon Lindstrom, Kim Maxwell, Tom Sexton, Julie Morgan, Regan McLemore, Symie, Jeff Gould, Ray Laska, Betsy Soo and Michael Clark.

Aug. 23: British actor Derek Jacobi (“I, Claudius”) plays poet Lord Byron in Jane McCulloch’s “Byron--Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know,” opening at the James A. Doolittle Theatre in Hollywood as part of the Ahmanson season.

Aug. 25: Mark McNease’s dark comedy “Over Jordan,” about a predicted spacecraft landing in a suburban California back yard, has its world premiere at Friends and Artists Theatre Ensemble in Hollywood. Robert Delegall directs.

Aug. 27: An agent’s conscience is tested during an FBI sting operation in Matthew Witten’s “The Deal,” opening at Van Nuys’ Back Alley. Allan Miller directs John Jackson and Michael Cavanaugh.

Aug. 30: Theatre of N.O.T.E. presents the West Coast premiere of Grubb Graebner’s “Arroyo Repo” and Cheryl Slean’s “Palmdale” at Friends and Artists Theatre.

Aug 31: Murphy Guyer’s popular comedy “Eden Court” (one staging recently closed at the Tamarind, and another is still playing in San Diego) opens at the New Playwright Foundation in the Fairfax district. Alice Burress directs Ashley Rout, Jay Fraley, Melissa Berger and William Brennan.